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Thursday 22 OcTOber 2020 LOCAL
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Recovery through Creativity and Innovation

General of the UN (2018) technology to solve some of humanity’s most demand-
“the advances of the ing needs. These technology and innovation labs could
Fourth Industrial Revolution, encourage small societies in developing their economies
including those brought to be more resilient and sustainable. The UNTIL in Finland
Continued from Page 9 among the most dynamic on by a combination of focus on SDG 16 “peace, justice and strong institutions”,
sectors in the world econ- computing power, robot- SDG 4 “quality education”, SDG 12 “responsible con-
The creative economy – omy, generating $2.25 bil- ics, big data and artificial sumption and production” and SDG 3 “good health and
which includes audiovisual lion in revenue and 29.5 intelligence, are generat- well-being”. Currently, Finland is aiming at the develop-
products, design, new me- million jobs worldwide. In ing revolutions in health ment and management of a Circular Economy (SDG 12
dia, performing arts, pub- that spirit, countries are care, transport and manu- “responsible consumption and production”). Interesting-
lishing and visual arts– is a harnessing the potential of facturing. I am convinced ly, Aruba has already indicated that this is a prospective
highly transformative sec- high-growth areas of the that these new capacities economy for the island.
tor of the world economy market for economic re- can help us to lift millions Next to Finland, you have Malaysia who focusses on SDG
in terms of income gen- turns and poverty allevia- of people out of poverty, 8 “decent work and economic growth” and SDG 11 “Sus-
eration, job creation and tion. The UNESCO Creative achieve the Sustainable tainable Cities and Communities”. At the moment, they
export earnings. Culture is Cities Network (UCCN) was Development Goals and are only focusing on SDG 8 and specifically on “ethical
an essential component of created in 2004 to promote enable developing coun- fashion and ecotourism”. Furthermore, you have Egypt,
sustainable development cooperation with and tries to leap-frog into a bet- that is focusing on SDG 4 “Quality Education”, SDG 3
and represents a source among cities that have ter future”. With no doubts “Good Health and Well-being”, SDG 1 “Zero Hunger”,
of identity, innovation and identified creativity as a technology is our future. and SDG 12 “Responsible Consumption and Production”.
creativity for the individual strategic factor for sustain- Technology is the catalyz- Egypt is the only country currently working on all their as-
and community. At the able urban development. ers for bursts in creativity signed SDGs in research and projects related to: special-
same time, creativity and The 246 cities which cur- and innovations in a com- needs students (SDG4); disease control, epidemic pre-
culture have a significant rently make up this network munity. Therefore, the UN vention, and therapeutic tourism (SDG3); animal produc-
non-monetary value that work together towards a created the UN Technolo- tion, poultry farming, aquaculture, water rationalization,
contributes to inclusive so- common objective: plac- gy Innovation Labs (UNTILs) and soil fertility (SDG1); and Circular Economy (SDG12).
cial development, to dia- ing creativity and cultural framework with a mission to
logue and understanding industries at the heart of leverage emerging tech- Aruba can make use of these types of research lab
between peoples. their development plans at nology to transform societ- frameworks, however, are the (financial, human, social)
the local level and cooper- ies, nations and humanity resources in place in order to establish relevant output?
Cultural and creative in- ating actively at the inter- as a whole. How can we as an island use our culture and our creativ-
dustries should be part of national level. ity to recover? Technology is considered the left side of
economic growth strat- The UN Technology Inno- the brain, while creativity the right side of the brain. We
egies, according to the vation Labs (UNTILs) are in- have to nourish both sides and create frameworks were
UNESCO report on culture Technology and Innovation tended to move humanity we can develop both. I hope one day our government
and sustainable develop- Labs forward, faster by focusing will see technology as a driving force and not only to se-
ment. These industries are According to the Sectary on the use of innovative cure e-governance for example, but to leverage it island-
wide and disciplinary-wide. Having labs that last on the
island with the involvement of academia, entrepreneurs,
and NGOs the possibilities are endless. In the end, if we
want to accept it or not, the creative industry is culture
and technology is culture! Without creativity, technology
and culture we cannot and will not innovate!q

Biography - Thaïs G.
Franken (25) is a re-
cently graduated Aru-
ban student at the
University of Maastricht
(UM). She obtained her
graduate double mas-
ter of science degree
in Public Policy and Hu-
man Development in
collaboration with the
United Nations University Maastricht Economic and
Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technol-
ogy (UNU-MERIT). Back home, on the beautiful island
of Aruba, she completed her Bachelor of Arts in Or-
ganization, Governance & Management (OGM) at
the University of Aruba (UA), where she successfully
defended her thesis titled “Placing Culture and Cre-
ativity at the Heart of the Aruban Sustainable Devel-
opment”. It was precisely this research project that
inspired the emergence of the “Creative Islander”
column in 2018. Thaïs is very passionate about topics
such as sustainability, innovation, culture, creativity,
social entrepreneurship and their role in public man-
agement. Next to her academic interests, she enjoys
reading, writing, dancing and cooking.